First Impressions with Chloe Kim

Amongst her long list of accomplishments, she won gold in Pyeongchang, making her the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding medal. But Chloe isn’t new to historic firsts — she’s also the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s (two triple rotations) in competition, the first woman to win two snowboarding gold medals in the Youth Olympic Games, and she’s a first-generation Korean-American. Not bad for 17 years old.

Somehow, Chloe remains a pretty down-to-earth girl, and there aren’t many normal teenage things she’s missing out on. When she’s not pioneering first-evers for snowboarding, you can find her shopping (which she says is a “really good workout”), hanging with friends, or spending time with her dog, Reese. Her refreshingly honest responses have nabbed her headlines left and right, and she’s become somewhat of a Twitter sensation.

After countless interviews with seemingly every publication under the sun, we wanted to step back and catch up with Chloe on some other important firsts in her life. If nothing else, it shows that behind that golden glow, she’s a lot like the rest of us.

Chloe's First Impressions

First trick ever
landed? Probably
a board slide on a box. And in the halfpipe, I think I did all four 360s, an
alley-oop, 180s, all that stuff. I was all over the place. Halfway up the pipe
wall, you know… the steeziest.

First crush? This boy named Noah in kindergarten. It was at a Christian school and I had like, five crushes in that class. Noah, Alex, Tom, Trevor… it’s good to have a lot of crushes because you might get luckier.

Last question... what's next? I did a thing with Visit California and the deal was that I get a big vacation afterward. I can bring five people for five days, so I’m going to go boujee. I’m not sure yet if I want to take a plane or just drive to a resort and stay at a really nice hotel or house… whatever happens, it’s gonna be dope. ∆